Par Level Setup Worksheet

A par that was set by feel two years ago is still setting your order quantities today. This worksheet forces the decisions that make a par defendable: what the item is called, what unit it is counted in, where it lives, who delivers it and on which days, how much of it you actually use between deliveries, and how much buffer you want for a busy weekend or a late truck. Fill it in for the items that drive cost and stockout risk first, typically proteins, dairy, fast-turning produce, high-volume dry goods, and anything that would stop a menu item cold. Expand to the rest of the list once these are counting cleanly.

The usage column is the one that makes the rest honest. If you have a few weeks of counts, usage for a period is what you started with, plus what was delivered, minus what you ended with. If you do not have that yet, start with the ordering manager's best number and let the next few counts correct it. Our Restaurant Par Level Calculator in the Tools section turns daily usage, delivery gap, lead time, and buffer into a starting par and an order quantity for a single item, and the article on setting par levels that hold up explains how to size the buffer differently for a cheap dry good and an expensive perishable. Revisit this sheet at the monthly par review.